copywriting

Anyone who promotes or sells anything online should really be aware of the power of videos. As the internet expands and develops there seems to be an inverse correlation with the attention span of the average internet user. This is a real problem especially for those of us who have learnt that one way to rank well in the search engines is to provide long and comprehensive pages of information. Unfortunately although this may rank well, people are less and less inclined to actually read it.

One way around this of course is to use video, you can put over huge amounts of information in a very accessible way with videos as opposed to pages of text. Now that’s where often the problem starts, how do you produce the videos? Now obviously if anyone spend enough time and effort they can learn to produce videos themselves. Unfortunately even when you get to a certain level of proficiency it’s still a time consuming process to produce anything of quality.

That’s the core issue, videos work without a doubt, however producing them is expensive and can take ages. Both of these resources are often the very ones in limited supply especially for smaller businesses and companies.

So what’s the solution, is video just for the big guys with specialised staff or large marketing budgets? Well no, because there are options which can help even smaller businesses harness the power of video. One of the latest and arguably the most impressive is to use something called Content Samurai, a new video production software which has been recently released.

As you can see it’s very simple to use and most people even without any video production skills can learn the software relatively quickly. Indeed the core aim of the software is to make the process as simple and streamlined as possible. This software is not designed to be used to create complicated and expansive videos. Content Samurai main aim is to produce quality videos as quickly and easily as possible. Indeed there is little doubt that you can use the software to create videos extremely quickly, and in volume too.

This is where many marketers and website owners struggle with videos, the ability to create a large quantity of videos is essential. Many people invest heavily in a video and can get disappointed if it doesn’t do well. The simple fact is that most videos won’t go viral and their success is difficult to predict. Certainly there are methods to optimize your video for the search engines and even to maximise it’s exposure in places like YouTube – but it’s not an exact science.

The trick to success is to create lots of decent quality videos and benefit from the volume. Take for example this small video about the BBC being blocked in Australia, it was created in a few minutes using the text from a corresponding blog post. Indeed using this method you could easily create dozens of videos a day with some preparation and effort.

No-one can predict whether a video becomes hugely successful or will go viral. You only have to watch as video creators who have been working for years struggle in the same way. The key is to not put all your eggs in one basket. Spending 75% of your marketing budget on one video and then hoping it provides huge return is a reckless strategy.

The media giant Netflix is moving to a new phase in it’s development by starting to focus on non-English content. Although the majority of it’s media will likely always be primarily English in a move to widen it’s international audience Netflix is starting to produce more localized versions of it’s films and shows.

One of the first places to benefit with this will be Poland, Netflix announced this week that it would be aiming to provide 80% of it’s Polish service dubbed or with subtitles in the local language. This represents a big shift for Netflix which has really focused on simply providing access to English language content irrespective of the country. Poland however is one of the biggest European TV markets and the viewers are used to watching dubbed and subtitled programming.

It is also another effort to try and enforce the copyright laws and the region locking that is currently waging across the internet. Although the company has been very successful in it’s Netflix VPN ban by blocking access from all commercial IP addresses – it’s still a big issue for the company. It is hoped by improving the localized versions of it’s service then viewers will be less tempted to access other regional variations of the Netflix service.

The other reason is that for the first time in it’s history, Netflix has seen some slowing up in subscriber growth. One of the big reasons for this is that some countries simply have little appetite for English language programmes and as such their appeal is limited.

Poland is the first country to be targeted with this new focus, they are starting with some of the big name shows like House of Cards and Daredevil with Polish dubbing and subtitles. They will also be dubbing the majority of their children’s catalogue into Polish too.

They have also commissioned some local content by commissioning comedy and entertainment shows from Polish stars and artists which should prove popular.

Affiliate marketing can be seriously hard work. Anyone who has slaved away for months creating content and building links, to see a single solitary clickbank sale trickle in as sole reward for their efforts will know this is the truth.

Finding new customers can be tough which is why I always try and find something to promote which provides ongoing value rather than a one off sale. This can mean a variety of things, for instance Amazon sales although fairly poor levels of commission – do offer the bonuses of income from additional purposes. However the main area I try and focus on is selling subscription based goods and services.

If you receive commission on a recurring basis, that one sale could potentially be repeated for years to come which means that it can justify a lot more effort into achieving that sale. Over the last few years most of the professional online marketing tools have moved to a subscription based model, most of these have affiliate schemes which you can join quite easily. If there are restrictions on joining, just be a little creative perhaps spoof your IP like this if needed.

It makes a huge difference in your potential earnings and it’s sales like these which form a truly passive income. If you take a few weeks off, and your previous customers keep subscribing then you’ll keep getting paid. Slowly focussing on recurring commissions will give you opportunities for just chasing single payments and make your business more secure.

There are lots of areas which have payment models like this, as mentioned many of the top internet marketing tools are now subscription based but the list doesn’t end there. In the entertainment market, you’ll find that most of the online casino and bingo games offer lifetime payments. This means that you’ll receive ongoing commission whenever your customer spends money on that site. This is why the casino niche is so heavily competitive – the rewards can be extremely high for a high ranking gambling site with good affiliate links.

Even if you are just getting into IM, you can learn how to write website copy that is certainly good enough. The one thing we will not do is mislead you because it takes real desire and dedication to write well and write good web and sales copy. Let’s dive straight into it without wasting any time because you need solid info, and we have got some for you.

You don’t really need to be an expert at copywriting to come up with good, effective titles. However, we have to tell you that it does take specific information plus a solid effort and some practice. If people do not have any idea about the copy or offer after reading the title, then almost all of them will immediately leave. Have you done any independent study such as carefully reading and learning from sales letters that are good? One other thing you can do is read headlines and titles in professional magazine because they were written by real professionals and are good. Practice writing your own titles after you have done some learning and studying.

As you approach writing any kind of copy, you need to address the reader’s emotions without going over the top and using hype. The basic process is people buy on emotions and then seek to rationalize it with logic so they feel they made the right choice. However, you need to know where to insert the emotions and use those appeals in your copy that speak to the person’s emotions. It is really very helpful for you to read professional copy, and then purposely dissect it into the various parts. Just get into the shoes of your prospects and give them something real, something that would touch their emotions. So regardless of the intent of you copy, the affect is to make them lower their resistance so they will make the buy.

If you find that you are being interrupted too much while writing, then that is something you have to address in whatever fashion. So that is something that will happen from time to time, and you just have to deal with it in some way. The thing about writing is that it really reflects your state of mind and emotions at the time of your writing.

Besides this, stick to the topic that you’re covering in your copy, use the right kind of language minus the jargon, and keep asking yourself at each step, would my target audience be interested in this? Put the time in each day, even if it is a little bit – work on your copywriting education and skills.

Writing killer titles that immediately grab the attention of your audience is much simpler than you might expect. You just have to know what the basics are and put down a sturdy foundation to craft these titles on a constant basis. The following article will get a little bit more specific and help you to learn more about writing interesting headlines that are effective.

First, try not to put too many exclamation points in your headline. You must put your potential client in the right frame of mind, but not overly keyed up. These days, people are hip to a lot of over hyped material, so too many exclamation points may actually go against the what you are trying to accomplish. Instead, be calm and show confidence in what you lay out in your headline. Allow your prospective customers see that your headline words are true and your support them, not by blowing them out of proportion, but by using bold methods and the right position.

Don’t create headlines that sound too good to be true. It’s easy to include a little hype in your headline without going overboard. It’s not likely that your audience is going to believe anything that seems a little bit less than authentic and true. This is a good reason to make sure your headlines are completely honest. When somebody reads your headline for the first time, they shouldn’t feel it’s fake or unreal; make sure every word you put in your headline lives up to what you’re going to say throughout your copy. This is what will get your headline noticed.

Last, if your product is providing something new or improved, then make sure that your headline says this. There is more to creating an effective headline than just placing the right words. But, it’s also about being sure what to say in it. Telling your potential customers that your product is new and improved will probably boost the chances of them reading the entire article. Since they know that what you’re offering isn’t something they’ve already seen, it will get them curious enough to read further. All in all, this article explains that if you want to create headlines that people will want to read, you have to go all out and make your potential prospects see that your product answers all of their questions.

Copywriting probably seems like a difficult skill to understand but unfortunately it is one of the most essential skills you need online. Obviously this won’t be possible if you make any of the easily avoidable mistakes we’ll talk about in this article, but there is no reason why you shouldn’t keep down the copywriting costs and produce your own sales pages.

One of the biggest mistakes is not learning at least the basic details about what they are promoting. If you don’t know at least the basics of the product you are selling nobody is going to buy it from you. Your prospect could easily figure out that you do not know very much about the product. This will obviously hit your conversion rate and bring down your sales. So always remember to learn everything you possibly can about the subject of your writing from pros to cons and in betweens. Once you have learned all there is to know about the product you can creatively play up its benefits. When you are sure about your subject it is easier to communicate about it to the prospect and make sure they get the right impression. Do not make the mistake of giving away too much for free to the client but still try to get all of the required information out there. This can be a fine line to walk, especially if you do not know how to properly balance your copy. Your sales letter is meant to educate your prospect about the product you’re promoting, but it also needs to make your prospect eager enough to buy the product. A good technique for this is to write all about the benefits of your chosen product so that the potential client or customer knows exactly what he or she will get from the sale. Don’t go too heavy on features or other details that don’t really matter when it comes to making the sale. Keep your sales copy fluff free and make sure that the necessary details that will make the customer buy are included. Many times copywriters praise the product so much that they forget that it’s not about them, but it’s about the customers. Keep the customer at the front of your mind and make sure your sales copy is targeted for that person.

Your copy will outright underperform if you fail to have a strong call-to-action in your copy. Why do you create a sales copy? It’s a no-brainer that it exists to create sales and revenue. That cannot happen very well if there is no call to action.

You can’t really depend on your prospects to understand and take the action on their own. At the appropriate place in your copy, just simply say it – tell them what to do. If you want subscriptions, tell them to “Subscribe Now.” It’s really simple, and it is always advised to use very few words. If you want, you can do A/B split testing for different calls to action to see which one converts best. Overall, though it is perfectly possible to do this yourself and keep down your copywriting costs but if you are investing in a new product release, a good copywriter can be worth his/her weight in gold !

Writing effective sales copy is dependent on how well you know your product, your clients and market, etc. However, many times even after putting in a lot of effort, you don’t seem to get the kind of response that you should. The problem is that common copywriting mistakes are made by many copywriters, whether they are aware of them or not. To improve your results, this article will cover some of these errors.

One common copywriting error you need to know of is ignoring correct punctuation. The key to copywriting is using the right language to help your potential customers learn about the benefits of your product. Making these errors will make you look unprofessional, no matter how great your product may be.

Using a comma or semi-colon correctly seems to be an art that quite a number of copywriters have not yet mastered. You need to focus on making a good impression by using proper English because there are many badly structured sales pages all over the internet. You can safely write as you talk and use regular vocabulary but you must make sure that your punctuation is flawless. Remember, proper grammar will ultimately decide how well your prospect understands your message and if you’re able to pass it on correctly.

Don’t give too much away, or too little, as these are major mistakes that lots of copywriters make. Sometimes when you’re creating your copy, it’s difficult to exactly determine how much info you need to give away. You should always be able to add what you need to, or take away what you need to, in order to make it just right. It’s important to balance out how much you give way as far as information goes. It’s important, then, to be able to offer customers just what they require to become interested while you keep your reign on the situation. The only way to determine how much you should offer the prospect is to develop the skills required. The only purpose your reader has in reading your copy is to get more info about the product before they purchase it. Your copy should focus more on how it will benefit the prospect to buy the product, not what it’s made out of or where it came from.

Writing copy without using bullet points is another blunder that copywriters often commit. Remember, your sales copy should be full of benefits that you have to offer your prospects. On the other hand, you need to make sure people see these benefits in every possible way. Bullet points, and using lots of them, can really help you highlight what the buyers will get out of your product. Bullets will assist you in turning prospects into buyers, and will usually determine if you make the sale. People love reading bullet points and like the information in a list format. So, you’ll want to use those bullets to present all the benefits of your product in order to get the most from your sales copy. Sales copy letters are the doorway towards getting more buyers. So the easier you make it for your prospect to go through it, the more money you’ll make.

You should focus on your copy being professional if you want to generate significant sales and obtain great results. Your performance can be affected by silly mistakes, which you want to avoid.

It’s likely you already know the difference between good copy and bad copy if you’ve been using search engines to look for relevant information on the web. It’s disappointing to visit a website when you’re looking for targeted information only to find that the info on that site is vague. These websites are usually filled with information you don’t need and the content that is available is badly structured and poorly written. Your site visitors need to be treated in a better way and they shouldn’t feel turned down when they hit your page. That’s why you’ll want to optimize your site for the most current keywords alongside relevant, high quality content. You can achieve this in many different ways. Before you learn the ins and outs of SEO copywriting, make sure you understand that SEO copywriting takes a considerable amount of effort. You can’t just use an article spinning software to create your content, but instead you need to skillfully write copy that makes sense to human readers as well as search engines.

Don’t make the mistake many SEO copywriters make and that’s ignoring internal and external hyperlinks. Internal hyperlinks are links to other pages of your site that are relevant to the content you’re writing. Not only will this help the reader navigate your site, but it will also increase the time that person spends there. You’ll obviously be giving a green signal to the search engines, as they really love properly executed internal linking. Don’t ignore the ALT tags, either. Coming to the external hyperlinks, when you incorporate links to any external resource, it will help in two different ways. The first advantage they offer is validation from a third party within your expertise, and the second advantage is they present the opportunity of linking with that resources affiliate program, or opting for reciprocal linking. As long as your internal and external links are in sync with your content, the search engines will always reward you. When writing the title, make use of the h1 tag, as Google highly values it. However, make sure you use the same words in the text as are present in the title. Even though most people ignore it, h1 tag is one of the most important SEO tips that can quickly boost your rankings. It’s also a good idea to use the h2 tag for all sub headings.

{Frames are useless when it come to SEO so avoid using them on your site. Frames aren’t user friendly and make navigation difficult, which is why search engines find it hard to identify pages with frames. They’ll leave no chance of getting the website indexed and ranked with search engines. If a site is using frames, only the homepage will get indexed with the search engines. In other words, don’t use frames because they serve no purpose.|Finally, make sure you use 4-5 keywords maximum in your file names. If you have keywords in your file name, it’s a well known fact that this will help with your SEO. Not only that, but it’s smart to use these keywords in the directory where the file is located.|Always focus on aiming for meaty content. Don’t do the mistake of having copy that is less than 400 words in length. The more content you write, the better your site will be. It’s best to go with 1,000 words per page as long as you’re offering valuable information.|Images are usually described with captions which are ignored by readers. Do keep in mind, though, that Google does understand images and know how they are utilized.

Thus, it is important to add captions that begin with the terms you are targeting to help Google understand your goals.|

Effective SEO copywriting will take time and effort to master. But once you get the hang of it, you’ll know exactly how to impress the search engines and at the same time give your readers the information they are looking for.

Search engines will pay you back for your effort but only if you play by the rules.

People who are new to IM seem to take copywriting for granted a lot of times. But you can’t really blame anyone for that because it does look kind of easy to write. However, very many people have discovered the truth about copywriting when they sit down to write it. It can be hard to write copy that will get the job done if you don’t have the knowledge to write good copy. This is why so many internet marketers outsource their copywriting to professionals. Even if you choose to do this, you should make sure that you know the basics of copywriting so that you understand what your copywriter is doing.

Headlines are, in some ways, the most important part of your copy. Readers see your headline first, and then make a split second decision to either read or not read the rest of the page. Inexperienced copywriters usually write the loudest and boldest headlines. They usually depend on devices like bold letters and exclamation points rather than coming up with a really good concept. When a reader sees a good headline, his attention is captured, he is curious and his mind is open to finding out about your offer. And all of this has to be accomplished in one sentence. Study the headlines of your competitors. Whose headlines compel you to read more? Which headlines cause you to turn away? Keep track of these things and use this knowledge when you create your own headlines. Break up your copy. It is commonly taught in writing classes that each paragraph should express one idea. This is true. Yet it’s also permitted to break one thought into several different paragraphs. If you are writing for internet surfers, you definitely should avoid using unbroken blocks of copy.

Breaking up long paragraphs into smaller ones will make your copy much more readable. In copywriting for the web it is okay to have a paragraph that is only a sentence or two. Shorter paragraphs will hold the readers’ attention longer.

When you change tactics on your sales page, put a headline into the text to help separate the ideas. By placing a large, bold headline in the middle of your page, you can introduce the next section of the sales letter and give readers a preview of it. This is also a good technique for grabbing the attention of “skimmers,” people who quickly browse the page before deciding whether or not to read it. Many website visitors will do this to decide if they want to read the whole page or click to another destination.

Words sell, and pretty much nothing else will. It’s your sales copy that really is the sun around which your business revolves. It’s not something you learn in one sitting, and it takes patience and work. It’s an individual decision, but if you never write it you’ll benefit from understanding what’s going on with your marketing efforts. If you cannot afford a copywriter, then you’ll have the ability to at least give it a good shot.

Jim writes the SEO Target Marketing blog with help from many guest writers who are all specialists in various areas of affiliate marketing, they all do this stuff full time !